I've been working on clicker training with my dog and cat, and so far both of them have been pretty happy with tuna, but I can't exactly carry a can of tuna around in my pocket for opportunistic training. I want to buy some actual treats, but I've heard way too many horror stories about other treats going bad, being choking hazards, containing chemicals, etc. If anyone could recommend me some brands (preferably ones I can buy online) of treats that are good or at least not bad for the dog and still taste appetizing, that would be great. For cats, too, if you know of any

Zukes mini treats are good. They are kind of expensive if you go though a lot, although they are a bit cheaper on Amazon. Old Mother Hubbard Bitz are good too, I think they are just smaller versions of their biscuits. I just got a twenty pound box from Wag.com for $50.

Our guys love ZUKES! Any way they can get them!! We're also a fan of OMH like dogs4jen mentioned. And these, we bought two boxes of these off of doggyloot.com just to try them out for pretty cheap if I remember correctly and they lasted a LONG time.

They are pretty tough and meant to be something for dogs to chew on (like a pig's ear) but can be cut up into small pieces. Not sure if it will work for the cat unless you can smash it into smaller pieces? In the past, I looked for and bought small packages of cat treats that are just dehydrated fish (from Canada) - no other ingredients. I used the dried fish for box work (hiding treats in a box for my dog to find) since they are pretty smelly and I only need to use a tiny amount.

Another thing you can do is to put a piece of this dried fish in a container with some dry biscuits (like the Old Mother Hubbard ones mentioned by the others, or with Charlie Bears) and let the fish "stink up" the biscuits so they are more appealing

I have also used mozzarella cheese (made with skim milk) – the block kind, NOT the string cheese. I dice up the cheese into tiny cubes (less than 1/4 inch) and sprinkle a tiny bit of flour to coat them so they don't stick together.

Kibble is always good to use too - I usually have a mixture of things in the treat bag and like to use the cheese and extra stinky treats (like the fish) as high value rewards.

After Emma spat out a soft liver-flavored training treat (the rest of the bag went to the Humane Society in a jiffy), I've just stopped wasting my money and use kibble. She responds to it just fine, especially if I hold back part of her dinner and make it a work-to-eat sort of thing.

I use the Nutro crunchy treats as Greta's go-to treat. They are bite-sized and come in several flavors, and they are the perfect size for her Kong Wobbler, keeping in your pocket for walks, etc. When we need a higher value treat (company coming over, nail trimming time) I buy the little sample sizes of Nature's Balance dog food. They are like a buck for a small sausage-shape. I cut it up into small pieces and Greta goes NUTS for it. I can get two nail-trimmings out of one sample, and they keep well in the fridge for the week or so between.

For an extra daily snack, I give her a couple sweet potato chips. Take a washed sweet potato and cut it into thin strips, bake at 250 for 3 hours, flipping once 1/2 way through. Healthy, cheap as hell, and she loves them. They keep for a week in the fridge and a month or more in the freezer.

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in on Zukes treats as well! My girls love the salmon and the peanut butter zukes minis for training. They are very tiny lil pieces, and my girls go crazy over them. Curly will go through a series of tricks for one of the lil minis

I can't help you with the cat...but I can help with the tuna If you get the little pouches of tuna that come drained and in those easy to open bags, you could walk around with it and easily treat the cat from it. It's much easier than a can.

ThreeTails wrote:What are you training your cats to do? I'm...intrigued.

Right now we're just starting with the basics of clicker training, so, targeting. I'm teaching her to touch her nose to a pen. When she figures that out and understands that click = good job = treat, it's on to basic stuff like sit and come. Eventually I want to teach her to do really inane things like play the piano.

Curly_07 wrote:I can't help you with the cat...but I can help with the tuna If you get the little pouches of tuna that come drained and in those easy to open bags, you could walk around with it and easily treat the cat from it. It's much easier than a can.

I really should have thought of this XD thanks

I went ahead and ordered some zukes and I'll check out the other stuff you guys recommended if she turns up her nose at that. Thanks everybody for the help